The Compassion Project

We at Main Street Vegan are honored that our production arm has joined forces with documentarian Thomas Jackson, executive producer Sailesh Rao, PhD, Holger Eick, and the rest of this amazing team to produce a new film. Our working title has long been The Compassion Project, but that has morphed into the name of Thomas’s production company; the film’s title for its 2018 release will be:

A Prayer for Compassion

The film follows Jackson on a quest that crisscrosses America and takes him to Morocco for the UN Climate Conference and throughout the Indian subcontinent to ask the question, “Can compassion grow to include all beings? Can people who identify as religious or spiritual come to embrace the call to include all human and nonhuman beings in our circle of respect and caring and love?”

Drawing on traditions including Christianity — evangelical, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Friends (Quakers), Seventh Day Adventism, Unity, and more; Judaism; Islam; Hinduism; Buddhism; Jainism; the Native American tradition; Unitarian Universalism; Zoroastrianism; and the “spiritual but not religious” point of view — A Prayer for Compassion calls on people of faith and spiritual seekers of every stripe to come together to bring about a world in which “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them…They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6 and 11:9)

Among the vegan notables who are part of this film are

Jeffrey Cohan, president, JewishVeg

Bruce Friedrich, of the Good Food Institute and Roman Catholic

Milton Mills, MD, vegan physician and Seventh Day Adventist

Imam Sohaib Sultan, first Muslim chaplain at Princeton University

Will Tuttle, PhD, author of The World Peace Diet and former Zen monk

Suzy Welch, Today show regular and evangelical Christian

We’ll complete the shooting and editing this spring. We’ll then be looking at music, animation, post-production, festivals, and distribution. If you would like to be on our team, your donation of any size is most appreciated and your name will appear in the film’s credits. Please check out our GoFundMe page to see the other perks for helping us complete A Prayer for Compassion.

About the Filmmakers

Thomas Wade Jackson ~ Director

Thomas is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer and musician. He received his Masters Degree from Florida State University’s prestigious College of Motion Picture Arts, where his thesis film, Slow Dancin’ Down the Aisles of the QuickCheck won both the Student Academy Award and the Student Emmy Award, as well as 20 other awards and honors. The film’s screenplay, and an interview with Thomas, is included in the fourth edition of the book Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect, published by Focal Press.

Jackson recently directed the feature film Mind the Gap, currently in post-production. Thomas has lived and worked in New York, Nashville and LA, and currently resides in North Florida working as a photographer and digital media artist.

He began his vegan journey in 2005 while living in Manhattan. It wasn’t until after the birth of his daughter in 2012, however, that he became “activated,” and found his passion and purpose in helping to create a more compassionate, peaceful world to leave his daughter and the children of all earthlings, no matter their species.

Victoria Moran & Main Street Vegan Productions ~ Producer

While earning an undergraduate degree in religious studies at North Central College in suburban Chicago, Victoria Moran received a Richter Fellowship for Foreign Study, leading to the 1985 publication of one of the first books ever written on veganism, Compassion the Ultimate Ethic.

Since then, she has become a sought-after speaker and the bestselling author of books including Main Street Vegan, Creating a Charmed Life, and The Love-Powered Diet. Fans of her work range from Michael Moore to Ellen Degeneres, and she appeared twice on Oprah.

Known for combining the ethical, spiritual, and health aspects of enlightened vegan living, Moran hosts of the weekly Main Street Vegan podcast; directs Main Street Vegan Academy, an in-person program in NYC to train and certify vegan lifestyle coaches; and she’s president of Main Street Vegan Productions, backing films and events that promote a kinder, gentler world.

"The great news these days is that vegan living is for everyone. This is such an important message, and I applaud Victoria and JL for their beautiful book that will help so many people renew their commitment to a vegan lifestyle or find the courage to take the first steps." - Emily Deschanel